Friday, October 25, 2013

Week 3:

365 Ways to Change the World: How to Make a Difference - One Day at a Time

Monday, Oct 21st: 1:00-2:30pm

This week, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years.  365 Ways to Change the World... provides ideas for being a "mover and a shaker" when it comes to helping the world in which we live.  I particularly liked this book because it doesn't just give ideas, it really flushes them out.  Each idea has a page long description, providing both interesting facts and resources to get started.

The ideas are broken up into various categories and are really diverse from each other.  One idea that I found quite interesting was about the negative effects of the shrimp industry and how many other fish would be saved if we stopped eating shrimp.  Another idea, which I might incorporate into our Bible Study, is to visit churches of other religions in order to increase your perspective of other world religions.  The book gave the advice of calling ahead to these church organizations in order to see if they had open service and what the expectations are of guests.

I can't wait to read more of this book and attempt to incorporate more of these ideas into my daily life.



Thursday, October 17, 2013

Casanova's Parrot And Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets

Week 2 - Casanova's Parrot And Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets by Mark Bryant
Wednesday, October 6th   11:00am-12:00pm
News Article Readings - 9:00pm-9:30pm, and throughout the week

So, it appears that I have a thing for animal books.  I could've told you that before.  Next week I'll try to read something a little different!


Casanova's Parrot is a collection of stories about famous people and their pets.  I originally purchased this book for my music classroom, as the front cover made it appear that it would be mostly about famous composers.  However, the book is actually divided into sections of people such as authors, actors and actresses, and artists. My husband and I have enjoyed reading parts of it throughout the last couple weeks.


This book is very anecdotal in nature, which I like because I feel like I can pick it up at any time.  One really learns a lot about the nature of a person by stories of how he or she treated animals.  The types of animals in the book are fascinating as well.  Let's just say that the rich and famous don't just stick with cats and dogs!   Some interesting things I learned were that Mozart's bird learned how to sing part of one of his concertos and that Ibsen had a pet scorpion, which he kept under a glass.


For the rest of my reading time, I tried to become up to date on the current events of our government.  Possibly not as "fun" of a read, but one that I found necessary.


Here's to a non-pet book next week!


Casanova's Parrot and Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets on Amazon.com

Friday, October 11, 2013

Cat's Eyewitness - Rita Marie Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown

In order to fulfill the requirements of a course that I am taking, Content Area Literacy, I am embarking on a journey of once again reading for "fun".  It's a wonderful break from usual Master's work!  This blog has been created in order to document my readings each week.


Week 1 - Cat's Eyewitness by Rita Marie Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Wednesday, October 9th   12:15-1:00pm, 2:30-3:30pm

For my first book selection, I chose a pet-friendly murder mystery.  Rita Marie Brown writes all of her mysteries alongside her best kitty friend, Sneaky Pie.  I picked up the book at at local "fill a bag" book sale with hopes that I'd somehow gain the ambition to read it.

The setting of this particular book, part of the Mrs. Murphy series, is in and around a monastery. Not only are the humans involved in the events that took place surrounding a murder, but several kitties and a Corgi friend are helping to solve the mystery.  I appreciate that the author has placed animal conversation in differing text than human conversation.

Admittedly, I'm not very far into the book.  The murder has just taken place.  However, I don't anticipate continuing this one.  I'm disappointed in the readability of it, particularly the amount of "fluff" and the abundance of characters whom I don't anticipate being major parts of the story.  After my initial reading, I read some Amazon reviews of this particular book which stated that its quality was atypical of the author.

While at the bag book sale, I also picked up a collection of 3 more Mrs. Murphy's books.  Perhaps I'll give another one a shot!  I really want to like this series :).

Until next time...

-Patty



Cat's Eyewitness on Amazon.com